〉The Sorority Row scribes have been tapped to write the 8th installment of the Jigsaw killer’s horror story.

Lionsgate has tapped writing duo Josh Stolberg and Pete Goldfinger to pen SAW: LEGACY, sources have confirmed to The Tracking Board. The film will will serve as the eighth installment of the venerable horror franchise. Although story details are being kept tightly under wraps, original Saw director James Wan and screenwriter Leigh Whannell will serve as executive producers on the project.

The first Saw, directed by Wan and written by Whannell, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2004. What began as a low budget indie horror flick became a cultural phenomenon, and the two continued to work together as producers on the six Saw sequels while creating another highly successful horror movie franchise, Insidious. In recent years, Wan has gone on to direct international blockbusters like Furious 7 and The Conjuring. With The Conjuring 2 on his plate this year and the upcoming comic book pic Aquaman on the horizon, Wan has become one of Hollywood’s most sought-after directors.

The movies became known as “torture porn” due to their graphic content and gratuitous B-movie bloodshed about a serial killer named Jigsaw who put people through a series of grizzly games that ultimately ended in a horrific death. Critics tended to pan the films, but audiences swarmed: the movies grossed nearly $875 million worldwide. Over the course of 12 years, the studio cranked out seven sequels targeting the franchise’s cult fanbase. After the release of 2010’s Saw 3D: The Final Chapter, producer Mark Burg said it would likely be the last. But in 2012, Wan and Whannell chimed in, saying they were willing to reboot the franchise, and they began more formal discussions of a new Saw film shortly thereafter.

Goldfinger and Stolberg are no strangers to the horror genre. The pair worked together on Sorority Row, Piranha 3D and Piranha 3DD. Whether Saw: Legacy will be a reboot, a continuation, or an origin story has not been announced, but given Goldfinger and Stolberg’s ability to craft creative kills while maintaining an undercurrent of devilish humor, Legacy could prove to have the right combination of self-awareness and shocking gore needed to jolt the franchise back to life.

The Tracking Board

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